JakeBouma.com turns 3 years old

March 18th, 2008 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (1) |

On May 1, 2003, I hit “publish” on my first-ever blog post using the pre-Google-owned Blogger. This is what it said:

Who knows what I will post on my newly-created blog, not to mention how often. In fact, there is a fairly good chance that this is the last post I will make. I will probably just forget that I created it. There is also a good chance that I will post diligently… we’ll just have to see. I don’t really know why anyone would want to read this, but it sort of makes me feel special to have my very own blog in which I can post my most intimate secrets and most idiotic ramblings.

Just under two years (and several CMS experiments) later, on March 18, 2005, I purchased the domain JakeBouma.com, uploaded WordPress 1.5, and began taking blogging (somewhat) seriously.

Today this blog celebrates its third birthday. According to the CDC the third year marks the entry into the “Preschool” era, leaving toddler-hood in its wake. Between the ages of three and five, this blog’s “world will begin to open up. [It] will become more independent and begin to focus more on adults and children outside of the family. [It] will want to explore and ask about his surroundings even more.” Shoot, my little website is growing up so fast.

In these three years, this humble blog has racked up 523 posts and 1,079 comments, with an average of 3.5 comments per post (factoring out digressions, which don’t allow comments).

And now for a trip down memory lane. Consider this my proud father moment…

Above: JakeBouma.com 2.0. Version 1.0 didn’t last too long because I deleted the whole thing on accident, so I started again from scratch. I’m actually a little embarrassed of this design, but I’m pretty sure less than 10 people ever saw it.

Above: Version 3.0. I wanted to retain some of the visual aspects of 2.0 while moving to a three-column format. My favorite part about this design was the oft-changing banner at the top (Here’s the banner from the blog’s first birthday. I plan on making a collage of them soon-ish).

And now we’re on the current iteration: 4.0. I plan on sticking with this design for a long time; probably until after the blog graduates from preschool.